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PRESENTED BY 



KJlSiJ^- 



With Complhnents of 



WILLIAM H. LJMLiELiT, 

Bn'7'el Major U.S.V. 



MUTUAL LIFE BUILDING, 
Philadelphia. 



"5f; 'M-;. ^^'■ 



Major General Meade. 






MAJOR GENERAL 



GEORGE G. MEADE 



AN ADDRESS 



Willikni U. I^iunbeft. 



PHILADELPHIA. 

S.unucl P. Town, Printer, Sevcntli niid Snnsom Streets. 
1880. 



lOO COPIKS l-Kl\Ari:LV I'RINTKD- 






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^T^HK followiiii; address was (lcli\cn--d before the Encampinent of 
the Department of I'ennsylvania, ( irand Army of the Repul)- 
lir, held at Reading; on the 28th and 29th days of January, 1880. 



TT^ROM the plain shaft on the modest village green, which testifies the 
pride of townsmen in their martyred comrades, to the costly 
pile on the Common c edicated to the men of Boston, a thous- 
and monuments throughout the land commemorate the sacrifice of our 
citizen-soldiery. 

On the banks (jf the Hudson stands a memorial, which, through 
coming years, will inspire West Point cadets to patriotic emulation of 
the gallant Sedgwick and his noble Sixth Corps. Looking across the 
little town to the field of his glory and his death, the statue of Reynolds 
on Cemetery Hill, tells how the First Corps loved the heroic leader it 
followed so bravely and so well. 

In the Nation's capital an army which never trod its streets until it 
trod them in triumphant review, has placed the image of its great chief- 
tain, the knightly McFherson ; whilst in the most conspicuous position 
in that city of broad avenues and grand vistas, the Army of the Cumber- 
land has erected in enduring bronze a magnificent memorial of its mag- 
nificent commander, George H. Thomas. 

But not in the city of his home nor in the capital of his country, 
nor on the field of his greatest fame, nowhere in all the land stands 
marble shaft or bronze statue to perpetuate the name and the linea- 
ments of the soldier who attained the proudest distinction the war 
afforded — the command of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. 

In the presence of an audience of soldiers, most of whom served 
under the command of (general Meade, and many of whom followed 
his lead from the swamps of Chickahominy to the banks of the Appo- 
mattox, it needs not that 1 recite the story of his life, yet so overshadow- 



ing was the importance of the grand event of his career that we are 
prone to forget that he had already proved his great ability, and rendered 
effective service ere Gettysburg made his name immortal. So grave 
was his demeanor, so circumspect his control of the great army that we 
are a]jt to think of him only as the wise councillor and the prudent com- 
mander, and to forget that in an army of fighting generals there was no 
more gallant leader- 

George (Gordon Meade was born of American parents at Cadiz, 
Spain, on the 31st of December, 181 5. He graduated at West Point in 
1835, '^'""^l entered the army as Brevet Second Lieutenant of Artillery ; 
resigning in 1836, he remained in civil life until 1842, when he re-entered 
the service as Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers. 

During the Mexican War he served on the staffs of Generals Taylor 
and Scott, especially distinguished himself at Palo Alto, won a brevet 
for gallantry at Monterey, and performed valuable service at Vera Cruz. 
After the war he served under Taylor, in Florida, and during the years 
of peace which followed, was engaged in surveys on the great lakes 
until the outbreak of the Rebellion, which found him Ca])tain of Engi- 
neers, stationed at Detroit. 

Commissioned Brigadier General in August, 1861, he was at once 
assigned to the command of the second brigade of the Pennsylvania 
Reserves. Commanding this brigade he aided materially to retard 
the onset of the enemy during the opening battles of the Seven Days, 
and when the Reserves, of whom the Comte-de- Paris says, that "for 
the last four days they had fought more and marched more than any 
other division in the Army of the Potomac," made their stand at Glen- 
dale, no troops fought better than the second brigade, nor was the gal- 
lantry of any leader more conspicuous than his. For hours he with- 



stood the repeated assaults of the foe, and though at hist overborne by 
shere force of numbers, their leader twice wounded, the brigade gave 
ground, it was not until by their stubborn resistance the army's line of 
march had been covered and the concentration on the James assured. 
Through Pope's unfortunate campaign, General Meade conducted his 
brigade with courage and ability. 

Appointed to command the division in September, 1862, he led it 
in victory at South Mountain, and opened the battle of Antietam with 
impetuous courage. He was promoted Major General September 29, 
1862. At Fredericksburg, on that day of hopeless gallantry, he was 
most prominent; striking the rebel left he broke through the line, and 
had his aggressive movement been properly supported, it is possible 
that that disastrous battle might have had more prosperous termina- 
tion. 

Promoted to the command of the Fifth Corps, he handled his troops 
with discretion and ability, that did much to prevent the misfortunes of 
Chancellorsville liccoming irretrievable. 

In June, 1863, whilst the troops were marching northward, on the 
eve of the most important battle of the war, he was assigned to the com- 
mand of the Army of the Potomac. Step by step, brigade to division, 
division to corps, corps to army, he had risen to the most prominent 
position on the continent. Not through the influence of political friends, 
not by carping detraction of superiors, not by self-seeking, but by his 
own proven merits each step forward was won. None were so surprised 
as was he by the order designating him for the high command. Attain- 
ing this command in the most trying moment of the army's history, in 
the most critical period of the war, he assumed the tremendous respon- 
sil^ility with unfeigned modesty, but without shrinking, for he accepted 
the solemn duty with unswerving confidence in his army, and with sin- 



8 

cere trust in Almighty God. And thus it was when the tide of rebeUion 
was risinij highest, and its waters swelling across the narrow Maryland 
border, were furiously surging against Pennsylvania hills and threaten- 
ing to overwhelm the State, that it was he who with the barrier of the 
great army at his back and God's blessing over all, was enabled to say, 
" Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shalt thy proud 
waves be stayed." 

The receding tide ebbed and flowed for many months ere its waters 
were lost in the chasm of fate, but they never again overleaped 
their appointed bounds; once and again indeed they dashed their spray 
across the Northern border, but the high water mark which Meade drew 
at Gettysburg was never again submerged. 

The star of treason reached its zenith in those July days, thence- 
forth its course was downward until its baleful light was quenched in 
blood. 

Great treasure was yet to be expended, many lives were yet to be 
sacrificed ere the Army of the Potomac fought its last battle ; other 
names were to rise into prominence and claim public attention, but the 
names of Meade and Gettysburg, inseparably linked, will ever be as- 
sociated with the grandest event of the war, and be pledge and promise 
that the Union, one and indivisible, must and shall be maintained. 

Though General Meade's fame culminated at Gettysburg, neither 
his usefulness nor his ability ended there ; in the arduous years which 
followed he proved himself worthy his own repute, and in all things 
acquitted him with justice to himself and honor to his army. During the 
trying yeais of administration in the Southern States after the war he 
showed himself Statesman as his whole life had pronounced him Soldier. 
In every position capable, to all ranks competent, in the midst of use- 
fulness he died, full of honor. 

Gallant soldier — valued citizen — Christian gentleman. 



I'ennsylvanians ! Shall we not on our soil erect a monument vvorthv 
the memory of the great citizen who achieved his early lauiels leading 
a brigade of Pennsylvania's choicest troops, and who attained his highest 
fame commanding the grandest army of the Republic in the greatest bat- 
tle of the war, fighting in defence of the Commonwealth and for the 
life of the Nation on the rocky slopes and the fertile fields of the dear 
old State. 

Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac ! Will you not emulate your 
lirethren of the Cumberland and Tennessee, and honor yourselves b) 
honoring him whose name is associated with the most glorious deeds of 
your history, and whose character typifies those heroic virtues of patience 
and endurance, of skill and courage, of devotion and patriotism which 
made you what you were. The monument which transmits the name 
and form of Meade to the coming years shall be a monument to you. 
You cannot ask association with nobler name or purer fame. 

Comrades of the Cirand Army of the Republic ! representatives of 
all the armies of the Union ; survivors of a hundred fields; proud of the 
record of our several States, and of the deeds of our respective armies, 
but prouder still of our service for our common country ; the fame of one 
is the fame of us all ; to transmit that fame is one of the objects of our 
existence. The monument upraised by our aid to his memory shall be 
a worthy memorial of the Grand Army of the Nation which had no more 
loyal son, no more gallant soldier than George (rORDON Meade. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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